Leeds Teaching Hospitals has launched a pilot project involving the use of a smartphone application designed to monitor and manage Parkinson’s disease symptoms, with 90 patients currently utilising the app and plans for future expansion.
Through the Neu Health app, users can log their symptoms and data is automatically transmitted to clinical teams at the trust via a secure dashboard. The app also offers digital tests to support users in assessing aspects of Parkinson’s symptoms, such as walking, balance, tremor, finger dexterity and voice, and supports access to information customised to a user’s specific condition.
With healthcare professionals using this data to gain insight into a patient’s condition, Leeds Teaching Hospitals shares hopes that this will lead to “more personalised and effective treatment plans”.
Dr Jeremy Cosgrove, consultant neurologist at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, comments that with levels of Parkinson’s reportedly rising in the UK, there is a “need to explore new ways of monitoring and reviewing some of our patients” in order to “keep up with demand and maintain a high level of care”.
From Neu Health, chief medical officer and co-founder Dr Kinan Muhammed adds: “We are very excited to partner with Leeds Teaching Hospital on this novel initiative. This approach has the potential to reshape the way neurology care is delivered within the NHS, ultimately benefiting both patients and healthcare professionals. We are really pleased to already see the positive impact it is having.”
HTN recently interviewed Leeds Teaching Hospitals’ chief clinical information officer for nursing, midwifery and allied health professionals, Sarah Hanbridge; click here to read Sarah’s insights into digital work at the trust. Sarah also joined us for a panel discussion on how to engage your board and workforce with digital buy-in.
In other news around Parkinson’s care, we reported on NHS England’s roll-out of an automatic pump for patients with an advanced stage of the disease which is capable of elivering drug infusions “around-the-clock”; and we highlighted a retinal imaging study at Moorfields Eye Hospital and the UCL Institute of Ophthalmology, which used machine learning to identify potential Parkinson’s markers.
